Song Lyric Sunday

This week for Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to write about a song written or performed by someone who was born in the month of August. There were plenty of artists to choose from including Madonna, Whitney Houston, Tony Bennett, Robert Plant and so many more. When choosing an artist for a feature like this, I try to go with an artist that may be one that no one else will pick. I suppose I try to not duplicate what someone else may choose.

This week, I am going with an artist who has great popularity and a lot of great songs. I’m hoping that even though someone else may pick Van Morrison, I might be the only one who picks Into the Mystic. The song was written by Morrison and included on his 1970 Moondance album.

Van will turn 81 on August 31st.

In 2010, Jean-Claude Elias compared Into The Mystic with Yesterday by the Beatles. Elias stated that it has been described as “another song where the music and the words seem to have been born together, at the same time, to make one perfectly formed, complete artistic element.”

Morrison is a wordsmith. In an interview he talked about how the simple use of homophones could alter the meaning of the lyric:

“Originally I wrote it as ‘Into the Misty’. But later I thought that it had something of an ethereal feeling to it so I called it ‘Into the Mystic’. That song is kind of funny because when it came time to send the lyrics in WB Music, I couldn’t figure out what to send them. Because really the song has two sets of lyrics. For example, there’s ‘I was born before the wind’ and ‘I was borne before the wind’, and also ‘Also younger than the sun, Ere the bonny boat was one’ and ‘All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won’ … I guess the song is just about being part of the universe.”

Rolling Stone’s Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs called Into the Mystic “the heart of Moondance; the music unfolds with a classic sense of timing, guitar strums fading into watery notes on a piano, the bass counting off the pace. The lines of the song and Morrison’s delivery of them are gorgeous: ‘I want to rock your gypsy soul/Just like in the days of old/And magnificently we will fold/Into the mystic.”

Fun Fact from songfacts.com: According to a BBC survey, because of this song’s cooling, soothing vibe, this is one of the most popular songs for surgeons to listen to whilst performing operations.

We were born before the wind
Also, younger than the sun
‘Ere the bonnie boat was won
As we sailed into the mystic

Hark now, hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly
Into the mystic

Yeah, when that fog horn blows
I will be coming home
Yeah, when that fog horn blows
I wanna hear it
I don’t have to fear it

And I wanna rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
Then magnificently we will float
Into the mystic

When that fog horn blows
You know I will be coming home
Yeah, when that fog horn whistle blows
I gotta hear it
I don’t have to fear it

And I wanna rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
And together we will float
Into the mystic

Come on, girl

Too late to stop now

Thanks again for hosting, Jim! I can’t wait to read the other submissions.